Knowledge Illuminates is the first module from GM Games and the kick-off for the author's One-Shot Adventure Series line. The module is written for 1st and 2nd level characters with a suggested maximum of 8 levels. Tim and Ivy were kind enough to send me a review copy, so let's get started!

Tim Shorts is a DM. I know this because I've read his module. It's always a pleasure to see a DM at work! :)

The module opens with introductory and background material, consisting of, amongst other things, an Alchemist's Doom, Marvelous Substances, a Dangerous Artifact and a Wicked, Metal Looking Demon! There are some cool ideas here, which can be expanded upon and used throughout a campaign. Some of these might readily be developed and become major focal points during the PC's careers. This material, along with several possible adventure hooks, sets the stage for the second and third parts of the module.

The adventure begins for the PC's, with an outdoor area to explore. The DM is provided with a keyed Hexmap, on a scale of 1 Hex = 1/4 Miles. A page of the module is devoted to presenting the Hexmap, which shows the features of the area, elevations and 7 keyed areas for the PC's to find. Hexcrawl time, baby!

Along with the Alchemist's Workshop they're looking for, the players will probably run into some monsters, interesting sites and find themselves some treasure, as they go about exploring the out-door area. There are opportunities for combat, as well as ways said combat might be avoided. Some of the encounters could turn a bit bloody and there's a possible encounter with an Ankheg, in particular, which I would expect to kill at least one character.

The aforementioned Alchemist's former Workshop will eventually be found and serves as the Dungeon for the adventure. It's accompanied by a map which is scaled 1 square = 5 feet. Again, a page is devoted to the presentation of the map and there is a second, smaller copy of the dungeon map on another page, which is handy and still big enough to be perfectly usable with my middle-aged eyes.

The dungeon is a short, straightforward affair, with 11 keyed areas. It's rather linear, but I think that's fine for a small dungeon. Tim gives us some traps, monsters, nasty tricks, cool dressing and a little bit of weirdness. Overall, our author makes good use of his dungeon and it should prove to be a lot of fun! Again, things are likely to get a little hairy (Undead, man! Undead!) and the players are going to have to be sharp. They will run across some magic items (some really cool arrows in particular) which should help them deal with the worst of it, if used judiciously. This section ends with a Concluding the Adventure wrap-up, which offers some suggestions for further developments.

The final and fourth section, lists new spells, creatures and magic items which the reader should find generally useful and there's some cool stuff here.

As mentioned above, the maps are by Robert Conley. For those not familiar with Mr. Conley's cartography, this means they're very, very good!

The text is two-columned and features a few drawings from The Forge Studios. Monster stats are in bluish shaded boxes and a few sections have additional advice for the DM, given in italics. I noticed one typo. I found the overall layout and design to be pleasing to my sensibilities. :)

The module instructs the DM to call for a Skill Check roll, at certain points and at the beginning of the module, Tim advises the reader to ignore these if he wishes. The DM will probably already have a way of handling this sort of thing and the usage implies, pretty much, how the Skill Check and associated Difficulty Level are to be utilized, but I would have appreciated a bit more information, regarding the author's intentions, here. A newbie DM might find himself at a loss, as to how to handle this.

The Cool, Metal-looking Demon mentioned above isn't a foe in this adventure, though he is described and his minions do show up. I still would have liked to see a Monster Block write-up for the fellow, because I like reading stats for Cool, Metal-looking Demons!

I enjoyed Knowledge Illuminates and if you're in the market for a low level/starter module, recommend picking it up! I think it'll prove to be quite fun to Run and will also be useful for ideas, inspiration and general reading pleasure! This is another PDF, which I'll be printing out. Congratulations Tim and I'm looking forward to your next release!

Larm is an accessory for Labyrinth Lord, easily convertible, of course, published by Brave Halfling Publishing. It is written by Moritz Mehlem, with art by Andy “Atom” Taylor. The PDF, which I bought a couple of weeks ago at RPGNow, runs 27 pages in all, and details a village of 112 inhabitants, providing several small adventures which, are designed to introduce beginning players to the basic concepts of adventuring in a D&D world and the mechanics of game-play. Two mini-dungeons, a wilderness encounter, and a couple of investigatory “city” pieces are provided. The village is well detailed, with 33 keyed locations, associated NPC’s, a rumour table, historical information and a map of the village. We get a quick overview of daily life in Larm, providing us with information on the sort of commonplace events that the villagers engage in throughout the week. There are lists of goods, with prices, for the various stores. All 112 NPC’s living in Larm are listed in their associated key entries. Many are provided with an economical, yet effective presentation of their personality, background and motivations. Some are just mentioned, as in the case of children, acolytes, etc. Larm also features three maps of the adventure sites and a Mayor’s Proclamation player’s handout. Aside from the cover piece, which is reproduced on the title page, there are 12 other illustrations, two of those being very small equipment type pieces.

There are nice little touches throughout Larm. The rumor table entries, also list, when applicable, the location key number associated with the person, place or thing being gossiped about. A table near the beginning of the book, lists all the places which appear in the key entries, along with the number of NPC’s which are associated with the location. There’s some great role-playing opportunities in Larm and player’s may find themselves involved with some more light-hearted interactions, as well as with more serious dealings.

While more experienced groups will find the two dungeons to be rather rudimentary in and of themselves, the role-playing aspects can make these worthwhile, even for seasoned players. They also serve to provide further details of life in Larm, as well as the history of the village. They’re great for introducing new players to the basics. The wilderness adventure, while simple, will require some thought and tactical planning, serving as a nice adventuring 101 lesson, which, should also be involved enough to engage more experienced players. I may be biased on that last observation, as I really enjoy this particular type of set-up and the necessities involved for success. The investigatory adventures, while pretty basic, as well, provide excellent role-playing opportunities. Of course, any of this can easily be adapted to the needs of the DM and his/her group.

If you’re introducing new players to the game, then Larm’s adventures are perfect for showing them the ropes. Some are of the over and done with type, others are wedded to deeper events and concerns, or, the history of Larm. Once the newbs get an idea of what their doing, they’ll then be ready for the DM to create more involved adventures. Larm will serve as a useful, friendly spot of civilization for the characters to call home, serve as a base for forays into more dangerous lands, nearby, allow the characters to make some friends and perhaps, some enemies, as well.

If you need a well designed village environment, Larm is a solid choice and should serve you, very well. A lot of information is provided, in an economical, well thought-out fashion. Overall, I found Larm to be Charming, very Useful and Pleasing to my DMing sensibilities. I like Larm a lot and encourage everyone to check it out.

During the first few months of last year, my cash flow was a little restricted. So, when RPGNOW put The Dungeon Alphabet pdf on sale for a little over $5, for GM’s day, I bought it and printed it out. I was quite happy with my printout, but when I heard that the first printing of the HC had Sold Out, The Collector spoke up and immediately wanted a copy! A couple of weeks later, when tooling around on ebay, I found the copy mentioned above and snagged that sucker! It arrived yesterday and The Collector is quite pleased!

Ah, but the book itself! It’s an Old School Feast! A dream tour of the Archetypal Dungeon. A delightful gestalt of Imagery, Essays and Random Tables, which combine to form a most inspiring whole.

There’s a short essay for each letter of the alphabet. C is for Caves, U is for Undead and so forth. The little essays discuss the topic chosen for the letter, describing its place in the overall idea of the Dungeon and discussing how it might be encountered, or experienced in the underworld. Each page features Old School art, wonderfully illustrating the subjects of the alphabet entries. Lastly, each entry has a Random Table, providing excellent ways to manifest these ideas in your dungeon! The entry for B has two tables and some of the tables have multiple parts or sub-tables.

My Favorite entry, is Y Is For Yellow! The accompanying Peter Mullen Illustration is superb! The Essay and Random Table, combine with the art, to splendidly evoke the sinister nature of that weird color. I enjoyed every single entry, of course and I’m itching to sit down and design a Dungeon!

The Sepher Yetzirah, a famous Qabalistic work, describes how God created the Universe, utilizing the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. The rich information found within The Dungeon Alphabet, will serve any DM well, as he/she goes about the business of creating a Dungeon Masterpiece!

The first of the Advanced Adventures line, from Expeditious Retreat Press, RPGNOW tells me that The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom was first made available on their site in 2006. So, it's been around for quite some time and if you're into OSR stuff, you probably already have a copy. But, new people are finding our corner of the gaming universe, everyday and even if you've been around for the past several years, maybe you've neglected to check this out.

If so, Fie! Fie I say! You've been depriving yourself of quite a treat.

Pod-Caverns is a dungeon adventure, three-levels large. To give you an idea of the size, there are 52 keyed areas. The main monster in the dungeon is the Sinister Shroom, of course, and if you're not familiar with these fellows, you can download a free copy of the excellent Monsters of Myth and get the skinny on Shrooms and their freaky Pod-men servants. They're evil, genius, magic-using mushroom-men. Mwa-ha-ha!

Mr. Finch has designed the dungeon to easily facilitate either a surface, or underground approach to the area. The module can be introduced in a more typical fashion, with the adventurers heading underground to check out the nefarious goings on, or the site can easily be placed as an expansion to an already existing dungeon, serving as an alternate route to, and obstacle in the way of, the surface-world. An underground river runs through the levels and will readily serve as transportation to the area, or as a means of travelling deeper underground, if the party entered the area from above.

There's some awesome adventure to be had in these three levels, with plenty of interesting places to explore, a nice mix of cool monsters, nasty traps and well-placed terrain hazards. There're also incidents of wonderful high weirdness, secrets to be discovered, odd things to play with, opportunities to make some friends and a well placed mix of level appropriate magic-items. The Shroom makes for a very cool opponent and if he manages to escape the adventurers, he has all the makings of the kind of recurring villain a DM dreams of.

The design of the various challenges delighted my DM sensibilities and I think that the module would prove fun as all hell to run or play. Adept players will find the module challenging and have ample opportunity to display their skills. Neophytes might find themselves in a little over their heads, but still, I wouldn't hesitate to throw babes into these particular woods. They'll learn a few tricks and this is the kind of adventure that is just too good for the gamer soul to miss.

The maps are nicely done, in old school standard black & white and so detailed as to help in explicating the descriptive text for some of the more involved terrain features. There is no scale given, but I'm assuming the standard 1 square = 10', though I suspect the author left this a little nebulous on purpose.

The overall atmosphere of the dungeon is pleasantly eerie, with some welcome touches of horror and that aforementioned weirdness, which Mr. Finch does so well! It evoked the kind of mood that I associate with the creepier sort of fairy-tale.

The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom hits all the right notes and plays them sweetly, indeed. Buy it! Buy it Now! Then Run It and let us know how it went!

The follow-up to the well received Blood Moon Rising, The Inn of Lost Heroes places the party in a well realized location of horror and madness. As shown in his previous release, our author knows how to bring a "stage" to life with well thought out details and happenings and like his previous module, Mr. Spahn has created an adventure here, that's fun to read and one in which DM's will find much to appreciate. I do have some issues with the execution, as we will see.

The format is double columned and I only noticed one typo. The maps are serviceable and while there's a scale bar, I alway prefer graph-paper squares or hexes, which aren't given. No big deal, as the maps are of fairly small areas and we're not talking about a dungeon here. There are a few B&W illustrations, which are workmanlike but pleasant. I like the dog, in particular.

The adventure takes place at the Inn, which was once the kind of warm, pleasant refuge from cold, dank dungeons, which any adventurer would welcome. Cheery surroundings, good food and drink, other adventurers and the proprietor, an ex-adventurer himself and his family. When the party first encounters the Inn, this is indeed what they find. Of course, the Inn is actually a haunted location and all this warmth and light is going to twist into a nightmare in short order, as the Inn in the Living World changes into the Inn in the Ash World and finally, the Inn in the Burning World.

Once this happens, the characters will be trapped within the Inn, along with some NPC adventurers, doomed souls and the very angry spirit of Evelyn Mortigan, who formerly owned and ran the Inn with her family. The PC's must find a way to escape the ghost-world they're trapped in and if successful, they'll have a chance to free the souls of dead adventurers, trapped within the Inn.

The characters' task hinges upon the failed designs of a cleric, who is now trapped within the nightmarish Inn himself. They must find and restore the parts to a magical medallion, that will allow them to escape and has the potential to set things to rights, once and for all. The cleric flat-out tells the party what they're looking for and why.

In both this and his previous module, the author takes strict steps to maintain the integrity of the sandbox and insure player agency. But giving them the wherewithal to work out what their choices are is also important and always preferable to having an NPC repeatedly show up and give them their formula for success. As a plot device, it feels a bit clumsy and I would prefer other methods of providing the characters the clues they need. But, there's a second bit of clerical exposition, which would be harder, but still possible to replace, given the nature of what the characters are going to be asked to perform.

The Inn and its inhabitants, the weird goings on, supernatural encounters and elements of horror are mostly well designed and come together nicely. The author gives the DM a lot of material to work with, with random encounters, keyed encounters and situation based ones. Like Blood Moon Rising, you're given a nice, varied, palette of material, with which to work. All in all, the author's approach gives the DM not only plenty of options, but elbow room and a DM who's into this kind of adventure will have a lot of fun. Also like Blood Moon Rising, the depth of the material means repeated readings will be required by the DM, as well as some note-taking. A plus, in my book.

Accomplishing their first objective will be a little tricky for the players, as individual party members may have to undergo some fairly stiff penalties in order to progress, though there are ways to avoid those.

If successful, they can choose to simply escape but may instead, try and put all those tortured souls to rest. Again, the helpful cleric tells them what they must do, which feels even more awkward this time, because this whole last bit feels so artificial.

It's revealed that ghostly Evelyn seeks a consort and the players must fight each other to the death, so one of them can prove their worth and get close enough to Evelyn to use the Medallion to defeat her once and for all. If the characters balk at this, our helpful cleric makes some intimations, meant to reassure the party that everything will work out for the best. Of course, if the characters go through with it, any PC's killed by their fellows find that once the dream is over, they are indeed allright.

As the author mentions, this gives the party a chance to have a battle-royal, without consequences and might indeed be a lot of fun. But the first thing needed here, is some foreshadowing. The whole "ghost seeking a mate" thing, tacked on suddenly at the end, rings rather false. Part of this is probably because there was no foundation laid for the reader of the module to expect this. When combined with the battle-royal idea and the cleric coming on stage to tell the party what to do, the whole set-up of this part feels more than a little contrived. Some excellent horror could be brought into play, by foreshadowing Evelyn's ghostly desires.

If you like the idea of a far-out, ghostly adventure, then I would recommend The Inn of Lost Heroes, but with the caveat that I would feel it necessary to make some changes. There's a lot of really good material here, which I would like to and probably will use, but I would want to smooth out those rough spots.

When I sat down down to read Blood Moon Rising, I wasn't really in the mood to read anything. I mention this, because within a few pages, Mr. Spahn had sucked me in and I was thoroughly enjoying myself. A singular accomplishment, as I'm very stubborn when it comes to being in a funk! But, as I read our author's depiction of the details of the Feast of St. Garan, its history, present day circumstances and current timeline, The DM was enticed to ignore his bad mood and get down to business! So, I quickly found myself dealing with a module that was both fun to read and got my DM juices flowing. That puts Blood Moon Rising into the recommend category, right there!

The action takes place in the village of Garanton and its surrounding area. It's the Feast of St. Garan, a five-day festival in honor of a local hero. Travelers, entertainers, vendors and all sorts of folk attend the Festival, including Fighters, seeking the blessing of the Saint. Of course, things aren't all as they seem and past events are coming back to haunt the happy little village and it's festival.

The module opens with the backstory and history of St. Garan, then gives an overview of the village and the area where the action will unfold. From there, the module gives a Timeline of the Festival. Both the planned festivities, like Parades and Honor Games, as well as other events, like murder and slaughtered cows. There's quite a bit going on, with plenty to see, do and experience. The five-day festival is quite eventful and I've barely scratched the surface, so as not to give away the whole module. True to Old School philosophy, the module presents the NPC's, events, locations and situations simply as they are, leaving it up to the Players to decide what to do about it!

There are also some random encounters and events for the Labyrinth Lord to throw in, as he sees fit. From there, encounters and adventuring sites outside the village are detailed and the characters may soon find themselves local heroes, or soon-to-be forgotten victims of the horrors which lay behind the history of St. Garan and his Feast. This is followed by a section on major NPC's and groups, such as a rival adventuring party which might be used to cause the PC's some consternation. Lastly, an appendix with new magic items and monsters, completes the module.

Blood Moon Rising packs a lot of detail into its 32 pages (34 with the covers) and the Labyrinth Lord will find everything he needs to bring The Festival to life and keep his players busy and entertained! From competing in the Honor Games, to forging friendships or rivalries. They'll probably find themselves sucked into what's going on behind the scenes, possibly unraveling forgotten secrets and putting an end to an ancient evil. There are a lot of little events and details, that can come into play, helping to bring the village, festival and NPC's to life.

Details on the village itself are kind of sparse and some of the locations on the area map aren't precisely indicated. The DM automatically filled in these details as he read, but someone new to running a game might fret a little. A time or two, an event or NPC were introduced in such a way as to raise some questions, until they were returned to and fully explicated in another section.

The text is two-column, clear and legible and an easy, well flowing read. I noticed no typos. The maps and interior art are a little smudgy, an artifact, I presume, of the software used to make the PDF.

The module advertises that it's a mix of Urban, Wilderness and Dungeon encounters, but I should probably mention that the Dungeons are two small areas, so don't expect a Dungeon Crawl.

Blood Moon Rising provides a well orchestrated Event for your PC's to attend and one which they should find quite memorable. It would serve as a great campaign kick-off, for a larger party at least. One encounter in particular will be rather hairy for 1st level characters.

Previously, I've reviewed Peter's The Inn of Lost Heroes and Blood Moon Rising. I thought highly of both and when Peter sent me a copy of Pyramid of the Dragon for review, I knew I was in for a treat! Peter's design approach meshes perfectly with my own DMing style of giving the players 100% agency while a busy, bustling world revolves around them. As in his previous offerings, in Pyramid of the Dragon, our author strives to give DM's everything necessary to pull off this sort of in-depth Sandbox play within the limitations of a module.

The adventure begins with the Characters witnessing a Red and Black Dragon fighting overhead, culminating in the fall of the Black. Investigating the corpse will draw them right into the adventure, but if they're feeling cautious, the author provides another opportunity for the Adventurers to become involved.

Years ago, I saw a forum signature which read "Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are Crunchy and Taste Good with Ketchup!" If the players become involved, they will indeed find themselves meddling in the affairs of Dragons! The two appearing at the beginning of the module were fighting over a powerful magical item and the Red is not the only Dragon still alive, who has an interest in the MacGuffin.

The adventure will have the players travelling through a dangerous swamp, then to an ancient, non-human city, where they'll have to deal with both current inhabitants and a visitor. The Pyramid referred to in the title hosts traps and monsters which are neatly arranged. It's short, as dungeons go, but well thought-out and I liked it. A visit to human civilization will most likely be called for, as well. The party will meet all sorts of interesting folk, like Snakes, Rot Grub, corpses, a rival NPC party and may indeed find themselves fighting their first Dragon!

As in previous Small Niche modules, there's a very useful mix of planned and random events/encounters, with plenty of activity and the kind of attention to detail, which really helps bring everything to life! Our author excels at those little touches that add depth, verisimilitude and atmosphere to encounters and sites and as one DM to another, I really appreciate how Peter's mind works and his approach to adventure design.
The black dragon Narratch was gravely injured, but not quite dead when it crashed to earth. As night began to fall, a flock of stirges settled onto the dying dragon’s body and started feeding on its blood. The stirges feed until morning. If disturbed by excessive light or sound, they take to the air and attack.
Not content to give us a static, black-dragon corpse, Peter adds some life and dynamism to the Adventurers world. There's more Action within that one little scene as well, but I don't want to give away too much. Connections, tie-ins and interactions between the various elements of the adventure create a gestalt, providing the DM with a rich piece of material, with which to work.

The text is two columned. I didn't notice any typos, though there's a minor formatting issue in the last sentence of page 20, which doesn't effect legibility or comprehension in any way. The maps are rather simple, no frills affairs, but serviceable. Aside from the cover and page borders, there's no other art in the module, which is my only (minor) complaint. I'd like a little art strewn about the text.

As with Peter's earlier modules, close attention and repeated readings will be required of the DM. But, if you're willing to put some work into Pyramid of the Dragon, I think it will play out beautifully! Opportunities for further development are also present, as the Characters might find themselves becoming further embroiled in the "affairs of Dragons."

As usual with reviews, I could go further in-depth, but am loathe to do so, for fear of giving away the author's show. Buy this! I recommend it quite whole-heartily and will be printing-out my copy with an eye towards running Pyramid of the Dragon!

I had been intending to pick up some of the Expeditious Retreat Press Advanced Adventures modules, for quite some time. While I had my eye on Mr. Finch’s The Pod Caverns of the Sinister Shroom, when White Dragon Run appeared on RPGNOW, the preview sold me! I bought the PDF and printed it out.

White Dragon Run is exactly the kind of module I prefer. It details a village on the edge of civilization, with its surrounding area, then provides a couple of small adventure sites, with more ideas for further expansion by the DM.

First, an overview of the area is given, along with a hexmap and several encounter tables. The hexmap takes up about half a page, with the map scale being 1 hex = 1 League. There’s also a table given, for generating the content of “empty” hexes.

The Village itself is then presented, with a keyed map, a description of the major NPC’s, location details and information on the rest of the population. A map and description of the local Inn/Tavern is part of this section. Some history, rumors, flavor and whatnot are given for the area and village, providing the DM with plenty of entertaining material to riff off of.

After the setting information, two small dungeons are provided. Both of these tie into the background of the area. The dungeons and their denizens are basic stuff, but well done. They’re solid low-level adventure sites and serve their purpose of helping the DM get things started. An appendix, being excerpts from a local book of lore, provides some more adventuring ideas and history for the region.

As always, Peter Mullen’s cover art is a welcome addition and looks quite nice printed out from the PDF. There are nine interior illustrations. The various maps are well done and serviceable, though the grid on the Village Map printed out too light on my laser printer.

My only real complaint, is that the Publisher formatted the front and back color covers as one page. I have plenty of printing resources at the moment, which has led me to purchase several PDF’s, when shopping for OSR items. I would much prefer to receive my PDF’s with separate pages for the front and back covers. Especially when we’re talking about covers with Peter Mullen art, which I’m certainly going to look forward to printing out! :) It’s kind of a hassle, to separate the cover pages for a traditional printout.

Mr. Boney has done a damn fine job, with his 14 pages. Today’s time-harried, Old School DM will find White Dragon Run to be a solid basis for a new campaign. The whole design comes together very well and I enjoyed the overall atmosphere of the location. With, for example, the addition of a self-designed mega-dungeon, or one of the commercial or freely available ones, you’ll find yourself all set to go!

New DM’s will find White Dragon Run to be quite accessible as well. In providing the bottom part, for a bottom-to-top designed milieu, the modules contents will serve as a firm support for the neophyte DM, as he goes about the business of building upon the setting and learning his chosen craft.

If you enjoy modules that are non-linear, mini-settings, then you’ll probably find White Dragon Run to be quite appealing. If the idea of taking this type of set-up and Running With It, strikes your fancy, then White Dragon Run is exactly what you’re looking for.